Saturday in Suzhou

I'm paying 50 cents for this internet, so I might as well use the whole hour! That means you get to hear from me tonight instead of tomorrow, you lucky people. Today was more of an adventure than I had been hoping for, but I think I pulled off the day quite well.

I woke up kinda early and went to my normal work bus stop, since I noticed yesterday that the last stop on that route is the train station. Got there without a problem (I mean, I had conversations with several people about when to get off and where to go, etc., but if I weren't completely clueless I would never have an opportunity to talk to complete strangers all the time.) Was disappointed to find that I wouldn't be able to leave for a couple of hours, but put that time to good use eating breakfast and reading up on Suzhou.

The train ride was very comfortable and very short- only about 30 minutes actually. Unfortunately, I arrived to extreme heat and extreme confusion, which led to much longer time in the extreme heat before finding a taxi to bring me to some random intersection that wasn't what I wanted, and then my hostel. Luckily, the people in the hostel are very nice and friendly and I was on my way taxi-hunting again pretty shortly. It had become fairly clear that I could spend most of my day standing in the heat trying to hail cabs, since things aren't really walkable distances apart, so I took the Rough Guide's advice and rented a bike for the day. Had a quick lunch, then got lost biking to the Opera and Theatre Museum. Someone eventually led me there, which is good because I never would have found it by myself. It was kinda cool; I took some pictures.

Suzhou is known for its gardens, so after a somewhat disappointing museum I knew it was time to find some. Went to Ou Yuan and then to Zhuozheng Yuan (the latter of which is the largest). Pretty hot out, but I was able to ignore it a lot of the time and really enjoy what are beautiful, beautiful gardens. (Pictures to come) Found a little pedestrian street that was supposed to have good restaurants that served Suzhou food, and found one and ate some fish that was mentioned in the Rough Guide as classically Suzhou-ian. Walked around there a bit.

Decided to return my bike, since the thing I wanted to do this evening was nearby. I have to say, biking really gave today the new-experience excitement it needed. It was fun to ride, definitely the best way to get around, and a good conversation starter as I would try to go places where vehicles weren't allowed and someone would come up and show me where I could leave it. And besides, who doesn't want the experiene of biking on the Chinese streets? (Don't worry, I was super-careful and didn't pick big streets.)

After returning my bike I walked a few carefully-planned feet to Wangshi Yuan, which is a garden that has a performance at night. We, the group of tourists, were led from building to building in the garden and shown a different sort of short performance in each- singing, dancing, storytelling, instrument-playing...very entertaining. They even gave us a free fan at the end! Kinda wish I'd had it at the beginning of today, which I'm pretty sure was the hottest day I have ever been out in for an extended period of time.

Okay, there are mosquitoes here. I'm going to my room.

New Sky Place

Friday, I did some work with Excel, which is good practice. Also a bit on the long and tedious side, but that is the price of a perfect spreadsheet, and it is one I'm willing to pay. Apparently the hot weather means we order food for lunch, and today I got some delicious fish. I'm definitely starting to figure out the things about the office that I think are done poorly, but I'm through 40% of my days there, so it's about time to start getting frustrated I think. (I don't know why I started obsessively counting my days, but I really like being aware of exactly where I am in my experience.)

I decided to come up with something low-key to do tonight since I will hopefully be leaving early tomorrow morning. Spent a lot of time on shanghaiexpat.com and smartshanghai.com looking at restaurants with WiFi, and picked one out that's in Xintiandi, this really nice area that basically consists of restaurants (and cafes and bars, and of course shopping since it's Shanghai). It's my first time in Xintiandi (which translated to New Sky Place, roughly), and although I'm somewhat ashamed of enjoying an area that looks really "western" to me, I think I get to just enjoy being in a big city with cool neighborhoods, even if they're not "Chinese".

The place I went for dinner was pretty good, but I decided to look around for a better place for desert and sitting around in AC with my computer, which was the ultimate goal of the night. (I've realized that being uncomfortably hot at home really takes the fun out of my short post-work evenings.) Walked around a bit, and found Jamaica Blue, which has been a perfect place to eat a lemon-coconut bar (I doubt any of you approve of that choice), watch Grey's, and enjoy WiFi. I've taken some pictures of the area, but I'll have to wait until I'm home again to load them. I might just do a big photo post in a couple of days.

Today I downloaded some songs by a Chinese artist that Sarah recommended, and subscribed to some news and China-related podcasts, so hopefully my time in transit will be more educationally-spent in the future. And now I'm going to try to do more research on Suzhou before my computer runs out of power! Have a good Friday/weekend, everyone.

Swat needs 50-cent smoothies

Thursday I could actually see blue sky when I left the apartment in the morning, for the third day in 4 weeks. Kinda threw me. Still hot and humid, though, which was reassuring. Had a pretty slow day at work, although I did look up some vocabulary and call Circus World with a question, the answer to which I was able to understand. It's the little victories that matter. Also, Simon told me I look like Anne Hathaway, which is something I haven't heard in a while. He just saw The Devil Wears Prada.

Around 3 (or 15:00) the sky got really dark and all the buildings gradually disappeared as a storm descended. It was pretty exciting. When the storm let up, weather.com claimed it still felt like 107 degrees outside.

Sarah and I decided to meet up for dinner tonight, which was easier said than done, but we eventually found each-other on the Bund and took a bus to Fudan University. Walked a ways trying to find this cute pedestrian street of restaurants, and were eventually successful. Had something that may or may not qualify as vendor food...a little risky, but a lotta delicious. Then noodles for dinner and a milk and papaya drink. By that time we'd spent a long while in transit, so we decided to part ways, and I managed to find the road home without a problem. Sarah's a really interesting person to talk to. Our mutual interest in the world and our ability to talk about both the U.S. and China (and her enthusiasm in telling me about Hong Kong) give us plenty of topics.

I decided it would be nice to get out of Shanghai this weekend, so I hope to make a trip to Suzhou on Saturday, which is no more than an hour or so away by train. We shall see!

It's not the Bund, but you can see it from here

Wednesday was the first day of the second third of my trip, and you know what? It actually felt qualitatively different. It kind of hit me that I'm at the point where I get to decide what kind of experience I want- I'm not just trying to keep afloat anymore. Comfort is very dangerous, especially when the basic concept you're going with is "do something really uncomfortable so you can learn and grow." That said, I'm not really going to change the way I've been doing things, since I'm pretty happy with it. :)

This afternoon Simon and I went to Linklaters, and international law firm, to meet with them about sponsoring a day of the camps. I kind of fell in love with their office. It's in Pudong, has a really pretty lobby, and huge windows everywhere. Even the elevator call buttons were way cooler than normal. Maybe I shouldn't plan on working in NGOs forever. :p

The firm is half-Chinese, half-foreign (as per the requirements for international companies here) and we had a lovely meeting with Christine, who's French, and Ice, who's Chinese. I definitely had more of an idea of what was going on than Simon did, and kind of had to remind myself not to take over the meeting completely. And as frustrating as that can be, it felt really good to have a handle on things and make things happen.

Came home, ate some cold noodles, and watch far too much Grey's. I can't believe I'm addicted to that show. I'm not even pre-med!

My iTuesday

Tuesday morning I woke up to a fully synced ipod and 14 new emails. It was like Christmas morning.

(I realize this has nothing to do with China, so those of you aren't fans of the minute details of my life can skip this paragraph.) Given that I have, in the past couple of weeks, downloaded a new version of itunes, accidentally deleted all my music, sent my computer into the past (multiple times) in efforts to recover it, and used a probably illegal software to reload my music from my ipod, I was rather surprised at the cause of my syncing difficulty: the USB port into which my ipod was plugged. I discovered by searching for the error message online that some guy was getting it because the USB ports that weren't directly connected to his hard drive (I think?) couldn't handle the transfer. As it were, I was using the ports on the side of my computer, which had been less convenient in the past, when I had books everywhere. (Also, it's rare for me to be dealing with 18 GB of anything.) So we see once again a theme that I mentioned earlier - a problem being simpler than originally thought.

Hustled a bit for the bus, which I don't feel self-conscious doing here because everyone is in constant hustle. (Also, I am being looked at pretty much all the time here anyway...must be because I'm so gorgeous. Or the only non-Chinese in the area where I live and one of very few near the office. Take your pick.) Anyway, the bus stopped for me, AND I got a seat within one stop.

My day at work was low-key and pleasant. I'm creating a media database (maybe I mentioned already?) which means lots of internet searching and copying and pasting. Put Tina Falle (who is working in DC at the International Center for Research on Women) in touch with Simon since she had written asking for some contacts at Chi Heng. (Family - she sends her best and says she'll be writing a mass update email soon.) Got box lunches, so it was 9 straight hours at my desk. Maybe I should be a tour guide. Or a zookeeper. Or something else that involves occasional movement aside from typing.

Took the second most crowded bus of my life home. (Mary remembers the first...it was downtown Chicago to Hyde Park. And much more entertaining.) Damin made/heated up (not sure, I wasn't there) some dinner, and I've been doing my chilling routine since then. Did a little casual research on shipping items, nearby cities and hostelworld.com...I'll have it all figured out in time. :) Also started watching the (20 minute!) online demo of the iphone.

Boring but not bored

Monday was extremely uneventful. Did some translating at work, which is relatively easy to do but extremely difficult to do well. Simon was trying to think of the English word for a bed on a train, and having never been on a train with beds and rarely discussing them, I was no help. Interesting to realize I don't know my own language. (Luckily, he came up with "berth" and I was able to Google it quickly to verify.)

Lunch was good - either I am eating better meals across the board, or my tastes are adjusting. I never thought anything (besides the pigeon soup) was bad, but my first couple of weeks I never really enjoyed the food that much. It's a nice change. On that note, dinner was tasty as well. Some sorta fish. Fish and vegetables get extremely high marks here.

When I got home for the night, I got to work troubleshooting my ipod syncing and finding pictures of clothes I want made - both activities that can drag on pretty much endlessly. No luck with the ipod, but I'm not ready to give up yet.

...And that's I've got. I promise more entertaining or at least thoughtful entries in the future.

Another winding road

Sunday: Got up, showered, and ate breakfast at la casa de Amy, then went with her and her parents to tailor heaven: one building with tailor after tailor, all offering billions of fabrics and the ability to make pretty much anything for you. We met Amy's mentor from work, Iris, and Iris's boyfriend, and spent a couple of hours picking up, trying on, and ordering stuff to be made for ridiculously cheap. At Amy's mom's suggestion, I got measured for a dress shirt: "something small to start." Amy says they are there for several hours almost every weekend...and I'm starting to dream up all the things I could have made if I have the opportunity. Went out to lunch with Amy and her parents, who are warm, interesting people - they very much make sense together.

Bused home around 3 and chilled a bit, then decided I didn't want to go far but needed to get out of the apartment. Back to the supermarket! It's the one on the first floor of the 7-floor building I went to my first day here. So I started at the top and walked through 3 large floors of furniture, which reminded me a lot of IKEA, and of those "room" exhibits at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Walked through the electronics floor, the random housewares floor, and I guess there's one I don't remember. Then got to the grocery part, where I got some fun food and a few non-food things that I needed, like a hair dryer. (Yes, it's taken me 3 weeks. It was a low priority.) Also noticed that I could buy a small suitcase for under $20, meaning if I could ship my big suitcase to someone in Beijing, I could take stuff for traveling in the small one and use both to bring all my stuff home.

One of the things I struggle with a lot, and I don't think this is unique by any means (although it probably hits people like you and I harder than some) is the need to optimize. This is along the lines of what I was talking about before, with the impracticality of reaching all of my possible goals. It is very hard for me to recognize all of what's available to me here (from unique snacks to tailor-made clothes to friendly people to work experiences) and know that I really just can't optimize my consumption of them all. Even if I can accept not having the time and energy for everything, I still have trouble with the fact that I cannot optimize the way I spend the time and energy I do have. There are just too many unknowns - I never have all the information.

All that said - I know that my efforts to optimize, even if they are only halfway successful, still leave me with an experience overflowing with opportunities taken.

Everyone knows someone

Saturday was very odd in structure, which is never my favorite thing, but it all worked out well in the end.

Had a relaxing morning, then went back to Super Brand Mall (where I went to eat with the Swatties) to meet Joy for lunch. Joy is native Shanghainese and works at Standard Chartered Bank. She is the friend of Earl Carr, the guy from the Caribbean Association that I met through work, and he connected so we could do some language practice. Joy is very nice and a little shy, and all in all it was a very nice lunch. (Dove is much tastier than pigeon - which is, I suppose, what you'd expect.)

During lunch I got texts both from Amy and from Sarah, the girl from the bus, wanting to hang out. I let them know I'd call after lunch, but by then couldn't actually reach either of them. Rats. The day continued to go somewhat downhill as I went to find this hair salon mentioned in the Rough Guide and found the address to definitely be a clothing store. Luckily, I was on Huaihai Lu with all the fancy shops and really helpful salespeople, and they called the place I was looking for and showed me where it actually was on my map. (Different address. Also, different name. But still a hair salon!) Found it and got, as claimed in the guide, a haircut and half-body massage for 68RMB (Under $10). A good deal, even with the added cost of about an hour of walking and train-ing in the worst humidity I have ever felt. I'm not sure what made me think getting a haircut would be a good thing to try to do in my third language (I guess, since I started Spanish first?), but I'm happy with the results.

Walked into a fancy mall and looked at fancy stores and ate some fancy food, then decided there wasn't anything else I really wanted to do, which seemed like a sign to go home. Turns out it was, since a couple of minutes after getting back a huge storm began. By then I had heard back from Amy, and the storm was over by the time I headed out to O'Malley's to join her. O'Malley's is exactly what you'd think - an Irish pub full of Americans. We were there to watch a Rugby game, since Amy's friend Allister (sp?) is a huge fan of the South African team. It was a really fun place to be, even if New Zealand won. Were joined by the son of friends of Amy's parents (who almost went to Swat - lived with Yongjun and Mark just down the hall from me when he visited) and his friend from work. We spent a bit of time trying to meet up with some other people, but there was a private party at MAO (I guess it wasn't a party for the people.) and Zapata's wasn't worth staying at. Ended up at Bon Bon, and had a lot of fun. Went back to Amy's in the revived rain and slept soundly.

Life outside my apartment

Friday started a bit dreary, with no plans for the weekend an a still dysfunctional ipod. Kind of fixed the first, and am putting off dealing with the second.

Work itself was pretty good today - I'm keeping fairly busy, since every new thing I start working on tends to require follow-up. We've got a pretty sweet tentative schedule for the camps...now we just need our sponsors to commit to dates so we can start setting things in stone. Got a group discount from the river tour people, and an official 30 percent off from the circus. Had something that resembled sweet and sour chicken, among other things, for lunch. Made me think of the time I was stranded home alone at the end of Spring Break and went to Leann Chin's to get dinner. ;)

After work, I took myself out for dim sum and thought of my family. (Mostly, how if you were here I'd only get one of the shrimp dumplings. :p) Then found the metro that's near work, which is actually really nearby. Only took it one stop, but also got my transportation card refilled and bought three seasons of Grey's Anatomy on the way in. Found the Grand Cinema and checked out what was playing, then went to look in some shops for an hour or so.

Stopped at Starbucks and became friends with all the barristas, and tried a Red Bean Frappuccino in my effort to try everything that is red bean flavored. One of the barristas took my phone number so she could call me when there were Starbucks events (what?? the language barrier was an issue here or I would've tried to figure this out) and told me where to buy cheap clothing.

It was then time to return to the theater, where I got a half-price ticket for being a student. I had just gone to see what happened to be playing, since the theater was supposed to be old and cool (which it was) and ended up really lucking out. There was an international film festival going on, and the 8:45 movie was "Walk on Water" from Israel. It was about some Germans and an Israeli, so their common language was English...meaning the movie took place mostly in English, with Hebrew subtitles on the main screen and Chinese subtitles on a separate screen below. However, when the characters spoke Hebrew there were English subtitles instead of Hebrew, and during the occasional bits of German there were English, Hebrew, and Chinese subtitles. Also, the movie was wonderful.

Actually found the most direct route to my bus stop, and sat next to a very friendly girl who is also a summer intern. She's from Hong Kong, and just finished her freshman year of college in Florida. I get jealous when I see how natural it is for some people to just strike up conversations and make friends. But I'm very happy when they decide to just strike up conversations with me.

Ooh interesting fact for the day: my dinner, 3 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, and frappuccino all cost the same amount. And no, it wasn't an usually expensive frappuccino.

Deliciousness

I must be honest - the theme of Thursday was food. Which is really an excellent theme, you have to admit.

Lucked out and got a seat on the bus after just a couple of stops. Really, my luck with the bus is a huge part of my life here. It is pretty much all I think about for a good 2 hours a day. However, I've had very few trips when I haven't eventually gotten a seat, which means at least parts of those 2 hours are spent appreciating how lucky I've been.

Picked up a random juice box thing as part of breakfast, and discovered it was delicious chocolate soy milk. (And the food theme begins.) Had a good morning, then went for dumplings for lunch - 18 adorable little dumplings for 3 kuai (about 40 cents). Simon bought white peaches on the way back from a trip to the bank, which really hit the spot. It was hot today, which makes me very grateful for the almost constant AC in the office, elevator, bus...everywhere but here in the apartment. (We move next week to AC!)

Came home and went to delicious dinner...a different thing that actually also translates as dumplings, but this time in soup. (Kind of like wonton soup, I guess.) Also, Damin had me try pigeon soup...which I didn't care for, completely coincidentally. (I have nothing against eating pigeons. Not that they really seem appetizing.) We went to the supermarket afterwards, which is always exciting for me. I think I might take myself there just to wander around.

Many of the places I go for dinner, and all the places I go for lunch, are really hole-in-the-wall. Small places, not enough tables, not particularly clean, small disposable chopsticks....I can't think how else to describe them. But the food is generally quite good, and really cheap. I'm really glad I have people who will take me to these places.

Can I take one home with me?

Wednesday morning didn't get high marks, since my ipod had been run out of juice over night (not my fault, long story) and the bus was super crowded. Things at work were better, though...I worked on the number puzzle packet and heard back from the Insect people, who will give us a discount! My dream of going to a bug museum may come true! (It's a new dream, but that doesn't make it any less worth realizing.)

This morning I also called a bunch of people who wrote winning papers for a contest we ran and asked them if we could disclose their names, etc. to the media. I'm not a huge fan of the telephone, especially calling people I don't know well, but every call that takes place in my native language is going to seem a lot less scary compared to today. Wasn't too bad, though. I'd do it again. :)

Afternoon activities were highlighted by a trip to see the restaurant of the health club of a sponsor. We checked out the space and talked to the manager about possibly getting to use it free of charge for our paper awarding ceremony. Fun to get out and about.

Came home and went to enjoy some lamien - noodle soup, where the very thin noodles are made by pulling the dough in a really cool and loud process that takes place right there. (Loud because there is substantial slapping down on the table of the dough.) Also enjoyed the 4 or 5 little kids who were practically running the place, and eventually got up the nerve to shout "Hello!" at me a few times each. I even got asked my name, but the clear favorite phrase was "Goodbye!" at the end. Must've gotten that one about 20 times in total. It was reeeeeally cute.

Day 21: Chicks start hatching?

Tuesday was the Dragon Boat Festival! (Duanwu Jie) The story behind the festival is that there was a man who couldn't save his kingdom so he drowned himself. People took boats out to rescue him and threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the water so that the fish would eat them instead of this man. I don't think they saved him, but now we have a holiday where people race boats (Dragon Boats, in fact) and eat "zongzi," which is sticky rice with either meat or bean paste (I think...it's something sweet). I think I have mentioned zongzi before, because Amy's driver's mother had brought some over the morning after I stayed at her place.

Anyway, work got off to a great start with zongzi made by Rager's mother. Rager is the 4th staff member in the office, and he just got back from Thailand. The day passed...I worked on some proofreading and projects for camp. It was actually warm enough for AC today - I think we're slowly working our way up to a real Shanghai summer.

Damin texted to see if I could come home early so we could go to his cousin's to celebrate the holiday. This is the same cousin who had us over on my third day here, and it was fun to be back. More zongzi, more eating more than I want to because there are too many unexpected courses. Caught part of a dinner table discussion about whether Shanghai people were thin or pudgy (for lack of a better translation). (The answer is unequivocally "thin". The only slightly pudgy people I have see have all been wearing Hawaiian shirts and speaking English.) Also understood Cousin to be telling her daughter she should learn the Shanghai dialect, because she was real Shanghaiese, having grown up there. Daughter didn't seem very interested.

I'm at 1/4 through the trip now. I can't decide if I feel like I just got here, or like I've been here forever.

Giving happiness

I may just not have anything of much interest to say today. I don't think that's a bad thing - I'm sure it's some sort of sign of really belonging in a situation when you can have a pretty unremarkable day.

I can vouch that Mondays are rough the world over, but work wasn't too bad today. I'm involved in a lot of different aspects of the camp now, and things are coming together with interested sponsors and local universities and so on. I emailed Circus World the other day on a whim to see if they'd discount our tickets for being a bunch of AIDS-affected kids, and it turns out they will! ("Because I really want to help you to give these children some happyness" says the email.) Tried the same thing today with the Natural Wild Insect Kingdom; we'll see how that turns out.

Currently courting two different groups of University students in hopes that one will want to do a day of programming with us. Also put in my vote for the t-shirt design. :) Actually started the day today by proofreading a translation of a AIDS-prevention brochure, so now I can really say I'm helping to save the world. (I don't know a whole lot about the troubles of our planet, but if we might be early enough to keep AIDS from doing what it could to China and the rest of Asia...then I think that might be world-saving work.)

Came home and had dinner in the apartment with Damin and his brother - Peking duck. And some other stuff. I wish someone would tell me at the beginning of a meal how much food there was going to be...I always end up eating too much of the first things and then feeling like I have to try the stuff that appears at the end and eating way too much, or saving room and then not actually having another course. Small price to pay for exciting meals, I guess.

Old friends and new towns

Sorry I missed last night's post! To make up for it, here's a really long entry.

Saturday morning I went to the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, since I had read a review that said "I went here at the end of my time and felt like I had missed Shanghai!" Indeed, I think it does a really interesting job of introducing the intended feel of the city. Highlights included a huge model (see picture) and a really cool 360-movie of flying over the city. The whole place seemed to be in celebration of the extreme development that has taken place in Shanghai, particularly over the last 20 years or so. To me, it seems so obvious that development like the city has seen comes with a huge non-monetary cost, and it was really interesting to see this presentation of enormous pride in it all. And it is extremely impressive, and a lot of the progress is stuff like cleaning up the rivers, so I don't mean to hate on it. And I love Pudong with its space-age skyscrapers as much as the next tourist. I just try to see both sides.

Another thing I enjoyed about the museum was seeing pictures of historic sites from long ago. Remember that pagoda picture I posted last week? At the time, I didn't really think it was that noteworthy. Turns out it's dated to 977. Makes it a lot cooler.

In the afternoon, I met Abby Mayer and her friend Greer (sp?) at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. Abby used to live down the alley from me and actually babysat my sister and me once upon a time. I'd been talking to her about China, since she lived there a year or two ago, and actually studied with my same teachers in high school. She is in Beijing with a law class from the University of Minnesota, but they came down to Shanghai for the weekend. We looked around the museum, which was pretty cool, and sat in their cafe a while. There was a section on smell-sensing, and they had this giant face that could recognize scents if you put one of the provided canisters under its nose (see photo). Not really the coolest part of the museum, but arguably the most picturesque.

After the museum, we went to Nanjing Lu for some window shopping. Had a fun time doing that with some fellow Americans...made it a different experience than the 4 times I've already done it. :p I wondered aloud what would happen if we said we WERE interested in purchasing a bag, and Abby decided we should find out. (The babysitters are always the worst influences.) A few turns and stairs later, we found ourselves in fake stuff paradise - a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Greer got some "Dior" sunglasses, and I bought a Mickey DVD...hoping I can understand cartoon Chinese. Haven't tried it yet.

We headed back to Abby's hostel, which was pretty nice (as far I know...it was my first hostel visit) and did some internet searching for dinner places. Taxied to a delicious Thai place, then looked around a bit - I think we were in the French Concession area. Got a call from some others from their group, who were in the bar in the observation deck of the Radisson, and they convinced me their friends would be nice and not-scary enough for me to join them. (See photo of spaceship/Radisson observation deck.) I'm glad I did - it was one of the most comfortable groups of strangers I've ever met. Good ol' Minnesota. headed home after that, though, because I was pretty tired. Proudly found my bus so I didn't have to pay the $5 for a taxi. Oh, also, we got asked for money by a little girl, probably 4 or 5 years old. We were walking past and her mother sent her towards us. We'd talked about this practice in class, and it was just too sad to see it in person.




































I'm cringing at the thought of how horribly these pictures are probably formatted. There's just not a whole lot I can do, and since I can't check my work, I'm not going to try.

Sunday, after a Father's Day call home (it was Saturday evening for them, but it was the best we could make work), I headed off to Zhujiajiao, a suburb of the city. Took me a couple of buses, but it was all pretty simple. Ate lunch when I got there, and then began exploring. It's a "water town", one of several around here I guess, which from what I can tell means it's canal-based. I did a lot of walking along water and crossing cool bridges. Took a short boat trip, which was fun. Also, my ticket included a bunch of historical sites, like old tea houses and gardens and the old post office. Ended up in some very pretty, peaceful areas. Walked past a lot of people just going about their lives, and had to remind myself they were not an exhibition...these are actually how they live, and this is their hometown.

Zhujiajiao is definitely a tourist attraction, so although it is still very old-looking (which is soon to change, according to the Urban Planning Exhibition Hall), many of its streets were lines with "stores". I had a very successful shopping day, which was really a much less dangerous event than it is in the Mall of America. Most of the items were offered to me at a price I would consider paying even if it were U.S. dollars, so when I bargained them down and divided by 8, things were too cheap not to buy. Highlights included a chop with my name on it (something I just feel like I need to have) and three cute pairs of shoes for 100 kuai (under $15).

Ate some dinner and bused home! I like weekends.

(Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, that is one of the boat-rowing guys wearing the stereotypical pointy hat...and talking on his cell phone.)

Choose your own adventure

I was very happy to realize it was Friday today. Also, to realize that today's forecast of rain was inaccurate.

At work, did some searching for number puzzles online and a bit of translating so we can hand them out as worksheets for bored children at camp. (The "children" are ages 13-18.) Made some calls, researched some events, wrote some emails. Pretty satisfying day.

Also decided to find something cool to do tonight, so found an event online, called their ticket line to make sure I could buy tickets at the door, emailed Damin to make sure we hadn't been invited somewhere for dinner or something (I get no notice on such events) and looked up the characters so I knew what to tell the taxi driver. And although it wasn't easy to get a taxi, I eventually got myself to the Shanghai Centre Theatre for Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe.

While it's somewhat frustrating to go through all that just to myself in the same place that 200 other Americans got dropped off by their tour buses, I soon got over it. The show was really amazing...all sorts of balancing and flying and contorting. I tried not to think about the kind of crazy lives all these people had led to make it there...the Troupe included three little girls who couldn't have been older than 8. It was all just memorizing, especially the act using silks (those cloth streamers that are hung from the ceiling and people wrap themselves in...maybe you know what I mean). It was breathtaking choreography, probably the most beautiful thing I've ever seen onstage. So, it was kinda worth the trouble. And being really touristy. And having to think about 4-year-olds in training for 8 hours a day.

Ate nearby and came home! Pretty tired, pretty happy.

Animal organs in my soup

Thursday it rained all day, but there was no pathetic fallacy.

Got to work late because the weather slowed traffic, but it slowed Simon and A Guang's traffic too, so I was still the first one there. (I don't have a key, but eating my convenience store breakfast can be easily eaten in the hallway.) There's a woman named Rose, who is the first person I contacted from the organization when I wanted to know about internships, and who works in the Beijing office. She's done the camps before and will be coming down for ours. Anyway, she called today to discuss what events from last year's camps we are keeping, and Simon put her on speaker. And I understood enough to know the gist of almost everything that was discussed. I was so proud. I also spoke to her for a bit myself - almost every single one of my conversations here switches languages at least once.

Anyway, Simon and I then had a good discussion of what needed to happen in the planning of the camps and some new ideas I have for activities. I'm now on a very determined search for cheap single-use cameras that can either be purchased in Shanghai or sent here...I want to give the kiddos cameras and develop their pictures on the last day, but have no idea if that is a realistic idea here. Also trying to see how Memory Books could fit in. Also trying to find an activity to balance our all the drawing and painting that is planned...I'm sympathetic to people who don't want to draw and paint. Anyway, on a role now.

Caught an earlier bus home than usual, and it was half-empty! Since getting home, I've been working on recovering my music, which was lost thanks to a feud between myself and iTunes. Luckily, I just did this a month ago, and I can do it while loading and watching Youtube video clips of the Tony's. (The first 45 seconds of the opening performance by the cast of the revival of A Chorus Line were enough to put me on a musical-theater high.) Also doing a lot of web and book research on places to go and things to see in preparation for the weekend.

Oh! Almost forgot! Had duck organ soup for lunch. No idea which organs. It was really quite good.

(Also, now receiving email notification of your comments, in case you were curious. Figuring out how to switch my language from Chinese to English has opened up my eyes to all sorts of new possibilities.)

Posts by Email

I just discovered that I can get blogspot to send an email containing every new post I write, but I think it will only send to one address. So, I've created a Google Group with a singular address, and anyone who wishes to can be added to this group and receive the emails with my blog posts in them. You do need to have a Google account, though. Soooo let me know if you want to receive posts by email!

Singapore's a city, right?

Here are the cities I have lived in the longest:
1. Saint Paul - 18+ years
2. Swarthmore - parts of 2 years
3. Shanghai - 14 days and counting
4. Santiago - 10 days
I guess I no longer have to wonder if I'll ever live in New York, or Beijing, or Chicago, or Minneapolis. I should, however, be keeping my eye on the housing markets of Sacramento, San Salvador, and Santa Fe.

Went to work this morning and felt like every horn was honking at me. Which is fairly unlikely, because I hear more horns in 30 seconds here than I do in a year at home...but the point is, big crazy cities are difficult in the morning. Bought myself some delicious yogurt of some unidentifiable flavor and sat down to work. Making slow but sure progress...wrote a fancy email today to a university we are hoping to get involved in the camps, and looked at the itinerary from last year's camps. I think I'm doing everything I can to keep busy and know what's going on, and my eagerness is being well-received. There's just a bit of patience required anyway, which really isn't a problem - there are plenty of things I can do with a wired computer, most of which have some educational or social value.

Have you ever tried to explain why you don't call a mixed race person a "hybrid"? Or the difference between "toast" and "roast"? Helping people with English is hard.

Today I missed my stop coming home on the bus. After frantically explaining to the ticket attendant what happened (there are always two staff people on the bus, one driving and one selling tickets), I realized the next stop was just as close to home. Whew. (If this ever does go wrong, though, all I'll have to do is hop in a taxi.)

Came home and went to eat; the restaurant was of a minority group, very similar to Arabs. Good food. Came home and struggled with various iTunes difficulties, just like home. :)

I was thinking about all the things I want to do and nearby places I want to go, and realized I only have 6 more totally free weekends in Shanghai. Two days from now my time in China will be 1/5 over. And I bet it was the slow-moving 1/5.

Thoughts on Tuesday

Tuesday things felt really good at work. I got there right on time, including a stop at the little store at the base of my building to buy breakfast. My Swattie friends made a good point to me the other night, which is that it's not actually much cheaper to try to buy in bulk from grocery stores - it actually makes sense to eat every meal out here, if you go to the right places. And since I can get some yogurt or a muffin for, like, 50 cents right below work, that seems like the right place.

I spent the day at work doing some email correspondence with Bella and Rose about the Memory Books, and assembling a list of venues in the city that could possibly be used for various events this summer. Not sure if the list will end up being really useful or not, but I certainly honed both my web-searching and spreadsheet-making skills. Also met a guy who is the chair of the charity department of some Caribbean Association in Shanghai, and was there to learn about Chi Heng. He was Caribbean-American I think, went to William and Mary, and had heard of Swarthmore (which astonished Simon). Exchanged business cards and told him I'd let him know how the internship was going. His Chinese was pretty good; his Chinglish, fluent. :)

Although I'm not spending all of my time with them, I'm certainly meeting a fair number of Americans and other foreigners around, and I do think it would be pretty easy to live here as an expat. (I spent a lot of time on sites for expats when doing my venue research.) I still find the concept very strange, though, and I'm not sure I would want to do it - it seems to defeat the purpose of living in a foreign country if you are able to exist autonomous from everything foreign. Then again, no matter where you live, you're going to have certain favorite places to eat and hang out and you're going to spend time with other people like yourself. Maybe doing that in a place where there are endless business opportunities isn't such a bad idea.

Seems like going out to lunch with people from the neighboring office is pretty much a routine. I like them - they're very friendly and fun - and the more of a routine I have the more comfortable I am and the less I have to focus on, like, newness. It makes me very happy.

Barely missed a bus home and had to wait for the next one...got back and turned right around to go eat dumplings. Delicious, but I sometimes wish I could just sit down at my mom's dinner table or pop into Sharples at the end of a long day. Ah well, now I can relax.

Sing it loud and long

Sunday proceeded very relaxing-ly. I spent the afternoon dealing with emails and reading, with a bit of falling asleep sitting up. Guess I'm not used to short nights anymore. Went to dinner with Damin and a friend of his who spoke very clear Putonghua (Mandarin), so that made me feel good about my language ability. Also, we had some dim sum, along with our steak/fried egg/spaghetti entrees. Guess which part was better?

Walked along Nanjing Lu, which is still a frightening pedestrian street of endless stores, but also is really pretty at night with all the neon signs lit up. (I mean, if you can appreciate the beauty of neon. And when it's all Chinese characters, I can.) Whenever I walk down Nanjing Lu ("Lu" means street, and all the streets going one way are named for cities in China and the other for provinces) people approach me and say "Bag?" They think that if they speak English I will want to buy from them. Little do they know their pronunciation is totally wrong - when I hear someone say it like a Minnesotan, that might get my attention.

Monday I skyped with Joanna in the morning, which was nice. I got to be part of the making of the dip for the Tony-viewing party. Went to work on a super-crowded bus - I'm pretty sure I should feel accomplished if I make it to work and home without falling over into someone. It shows either a real command of the laws of physics or a really strong grip, either of which is commendable. Also helps preserve the pro-foreigner attitude we've got going around here. Work itself was long, but not bad. Brainstormed some ideas for expanding the Memory Book project, which is what Bella Liu'07 from Swat started with Chi Heng when she interned several years ago. Memory Books are like activity books for AIDS-affected children that help them record a bit about their (often dying) parents and family history, and also their goals and hopes for the future. Went out to lunch with Simon and some nice people from a neighboring office - they speak in putonghua, and when I'm concentrating it's good practice, and when I'm not I can just relax and eat.

One thing I keep meaning to mention, since it is something I had heard about China and never knew if it was true - since the word for "four" and the word for "death" sound similar (same syllable, different tone) the floors of my office building go 1, 2, 3, 3A, 5, 6...12, 13, 13A...etc. Kinda interesting.

Came home from work and headed with Damin and his brother to dinner, which was kinda like fondue or something...I think they call it hot pot. You have a pot of boiling water (with oil and flavor and stuff in it) in the middle of your table and order meat and vegetables, which you then put in the water to cook it. Really yummy. When I leave China, I'm going to miss having good cooked vegetables - you just don't get that at Sharples. Discussed the recent dip in the Shanghai stock market and tried to explain need-blind admissions.

Oh, and at dinner, I heard a ringtone of The Fung Yung Song from elementary school music class! Who knows, maybe that song planted the little seed of interest that has led me to be here today.

Shanghai with a little help from my friends

Uh oh, it's already noon on Sunday and I haven't written about Friday or Saturday yet!

I can't actually access my own blogspot site anymore (I'm hoping to be able to sometime in the future again, but who knows). I assume this has something to do with what is known as The Great Firewall of China. Since I can still post, this will only change a couple of things: my mom will be copying the comments and emailing them to me (but PLEASE keep commenting. I want your comments very much and I'd love for them to be preserved on this blog for whenever I can next access it.) Also, the formatting might not look as nice (not that it was anything fancy before), especially with pictures, since I can't check it out and see how it looks.

I gave you a taste of my feelings about work on Friday already. The day was generally pleasant and went fairly quickly - I managed to keep myself fairly busy. Also got myself there and back without a hitch, which was cool. Had an 8-kuai box lunch, which was tasty. (That's just over $1, a very tasty price.)

I feel bad for people studying English here (read: everyone Chinese), because there is a lot of bad English around everywhere. Wouldn't you start learning things incorrectly?

Friday night I came home, made myself a sandwich, and relaxed after my long two-day work week. It felt really good.


Saturday was super fun and exciting, are you ready? I went in the morning to the Foreign Language Bookstore, which was easy to get to since I had realized there was a stop of a bus I often took that was right nearby. They have enough selection to assure me I will not run out of things to read, as long as I'm willing to pay $10 each for them. Ate lunch at a Singaporean place, which was delicious and included a mango smoothy. Went then to the Shanghai Grand Theatre to see if I could get a tour, but it was right during a matinee performance of Mamma Mia, so not such a good time. Instead went to the Shanghai Art Museum, which is in a pretty old building and filled with contemporary art. It was free, and air conditioned, so it was great even if the art wasn't my favorite. Spent some time reading in the park, then took the subway to the Pudong side of the city. (The city is divided by the Huangpu river into Pudong and Puxi.) Met Adam Xu, George Yin, and David Lau, all '09 at Swarthmore, at the restaurant Yuga, which is located on the 9th floor of Super Brand Mall. (The mall was really impressively gigantic, by the way. Also, a Chinese guy came up to me when I was approaching the mall and said his girlfriend wanted to take a picture with me. They must not have seen the millions of other foreigners around.) George lives here and is leaving today for Taibei and Japan, Adam lives here and is leaving in a month for London, and David lives in Hong Kong, has been in my Chinese classes, and is here with a language program run by Columbia. The natives treated us to a delicious meal, and then we got to take a boat ride on the river, thanks to Adam's dad's company. It was the section of the river that runs between the Bund and the Pudong ("Futureland") area, and it was really really neat. I'll post some pictures at the end of this entry.

All the Swatties had to part ways, and I went to find Amy and her friend Priscilla, who is interning in a nearby city this summer. We met up with some expat friends of Amy's and experienced some of Shanghai's famous nightlife. Had a really fun time, and Amy let us sleep in her apartment so we didn't have to travel home that night. She and her mom even gave us zongzi (gluttonous rice wrapped in leaves, traditional food of the Dragon Boat festival, which is later this summer) to eat in the morning. Took a cab home (for like $5...I love Shanghai cabs) and here I am, relaxing at home from my big Saturday out in the city.

Saving the World, Day 1

Thursday was my first day of work, and I have no photographs to share. I am sorry!

Also, this post is late because blogspot has not been working for me. It is also being written while at work, because there is a certain lack of things for me to do here. I asked about every project I could think of and sent off some emails. I think Simon knows I am anxious to actually do some work, but need at least SOME leads before I can exercise the "good ability to work independently" required by the internship. I am far from having lost hope, though...I think I just need to be a little patient right now. If I don't have some projects that are ready to be worked on by Monday, I shall make a fuss. A polite, professional fuss of course.

So, Thursday I came to work and had some frustration connecting with Simon at the bus stop, but we eventually found each-other and I headed up to the office. (The main problem is that I had arrived earlier than planned..."The early bird misses the worm" says Simon.) The office on the 27th floor of a building, and I have a nice view out the window near my desk of a bunch of tall buildings and a river. I use my own laptop because it's better than what they have here. I drink lots of green tea. There are no other interns in the office (tear) but Simon and the Administrative Assistant, A Guang, are very nice. Simon and I speak mostly English, but I switch to Chinese when I can, and any conversations involving A Guang are in Chinese.

I spent the day reading everything I could find about the organization, and really found it interesting. It (Chi Heng Foundation) is the only large NGO allowed to work in Central China, allowed because of its low-profile and its focus on education (not a politically-charged topic, apparently). It does both AIDS prevention and work with AIDS-affected children. I'm going to working with the latter, helping to organize two sessions of Summer Camp in Shanghai for these children, who come from various villages in Central China. The primary focus of working with these children, however, is in funding their school fees. (Primary and junior high education is free but there are still supply fees, and senior high and university have tuition.) They are not all AIDS orphans, but they all have had a least one parent die of AIDS, and often the other is currently inflicted. Paying for school fees ensures that the family does not have to choose between treatment and their child's education. It's strange, because I really don't know what my stance is on charities in general, but as they go, this seems like a very smart one doing some very important work.

Came home from work pretty tired, and walked to Walmart (really. Walmart.) to buy some groceries so I can actually know where my next meal is coming from sometimes and not have to rely on going out to eat. Made myself a sandwich (no, I'm not going to become a master Chinese chef while I'm here, sorry) and did some much-needed relaxing at home.

I've been thinking a lot about what exactly my goals are for being here. I meant to write them out before I left, but there just wasn't the time, and I don't think I knew then either. In a perfect world, I would (in the span of two months) have a meaningful and educational internship, learn how to live like a native, improve my Chinese dramatically, and have a lot of fun. I'm starting to realize these goals are ambitious - none of them come automatically, and it would be impossible to accomplish all of them. At the same time, it's hard to AVOID feeling like I'm learning here. As long as I am sure I am learning and experiencing, I am fairly satisfied.

Lychees save the day

Wednesday was less exciting than the rest of my days here so far, and I think that's okay. Tomorrow's my first day of work, after all. After convincing Damin I could probably find my way and even if I got lost I could get myself out of it, I headed off to meet Cara Chan at her school. Cara is the sister of Joanna's roommate for four years in college, and she has been here since February with NYU. On my way to meet her, I had some time so I went to Jing'an Si (Jing'an Temple), which is "the primary place of ancestral worship in the city" according to my guidebook. People young and old, from the monks to the teens in shiny skirts, were there praying, which was kind of cool. Jetted out of there in time to get thoroughly lost and find myself again on the way to meet Cara.

We walked through campus, which was East Normal China University, and to visit a friend of hers in a dorm. We then went to CorreFour (sp?), which is like Walmart, to see one of her two favorite things about Shanghai: the magnetic cart-and-people conveyor belts that take you to the next floor. Instead of having separate escalators for carts (which I only discovered last year at the Target near Swarthmore), you get on this upward-sloping belt with your cart. (Her other favorite thing is the transportation cards, which are high on my list.)

Basically hung out at the apartment, since the person who was going to take us somewhere kept getting roped into other things. Nice to get to know Cara a little bit though - she laughs just like her sister. Eventually headed back to the park, read a bit, and caught a bus home.

I was a little sad that my day wasn't really anything special, but then Damin came home with lychees. I have no way to explain to him the role lychee plays in the U.S. I have really only seen it as a flavor of bubble tea or candies from Chinese class. It is MUCH better as fresh fruit, though.

Another highlight of today was seeing a few teams of workers outside doing, like, calisthenics. The first group was doing jumping jacks in their fast food uniforms, and the second was, like, dancing. Makes me smile.

Shanghai Sunshine

Tuesday was a great day. Want to hear about it? Okay.
Took the bus to People's Square and went to go find the bus that would take me to a suburb for the day, only it was raining miserably and I decided I would rather just go to the Shanghai museum (see left). I spent a good 3 or 4 hours in there, taking the audio tour, eavesdropping on conversations in Chinese, Spanish, and English, and even introducing myself to a group of people there from all over the U.S. (Joanna and probably Mom: One of them went to Totino Grace...she said she didn't make the dance team.)

I don't love Chinese art, but I do love museums, and I really love audio tours, so I had a fantastic time. And I have to admit, some of it was really cool, especially the ceramics. They had a "Chinese Minority Nationalities' Art Gallery' which contained this traditional Hmong outfit. (The placard said it was of the Miao people, which confused me until I remembered that is the Chinese word for Hmong...one of those words you learn when it describes over 2/3 of your class.) If only I liked Chinese art better, I seriously could be running that very museum someday, if they'd let a waiguoren (foreginer) run it.



When I left the museum, I found completely gorgeous weather. Bought lunch and sat by a dormant fountain...and about 2 minutes later, heard an announcement saying to stay away from it, because it was about to start. Watched people play in the fountain for a bit, then went to read in the shade. Ran into some people who wanted to practice their English, and spoke to them in Chinese but told them their English was very good, which it was.



I then went to wander through fancy department stores (I'm talking curved escalators and glass elevators), and ended up on Nanjing Lu, where I'd been before, but was able to enjoy more this time. So many stores...it's really amazing. Stayed there long enough to let it get dark and see all the signs lit up. Also, saw the Bund and the skyline lit up. Then caught a taxi home...I'd wandered too far from my bus stop to want to get back, and taxis here are super cheap. Below are some pictures from today, but I have now posted all of my pictures (not really edited for repetitiveness or quality, sorry) at http://picasaweb.google.com/Alison.Flamm/China2007
Some pictures may also be sideways until a later date.

Kong Laoshi wasn't kidding...

Monday felt almost like a normal day (in a foreign country). I don't want to speak too soon, but I think the gigantic bouts of anxiety brought on by culture-and-everything-else shock have subsided. I'm sure I will still have bouts of anxiety, because last time I checked I was still me, but at least they will be for more comfortable reasons. Also, I slept until 7 today! Also discovered the Swatties in China Summer 2007 facebook group and wrote to a bunch of them, getting some positive responses.

In the morning, Damin sent me on a bus to Lu Xun Park, named for one of China's most renowned authors. Got off the bus at an ATM and decided to give it another try...my card hadn't worked the day before. And indeed, it worked once I chose "check" instead of "credit". Wahwah. (Wahwah, or wahahaha, or whatever variation is something Chinese/Taiwanese people seem to write a lot. I'm not quite sure what it means, but it's useful...) I then went to Starbucks (I know, I know...but it was really good! They even gave me a real mug for my mocha. And I feel like I'm legit enough to get away with it once in a while. ) before entering the park. Speaking of, here are some elderly folks dancing in the park.

A couple of general things about Shanghai's parks: several of them, at least, were originally only for foreigners...I've heard there were signs reading "No Dogs or Chinese" (Although a Google search reveals that might just be a story.) Also, you never know when you're going to encounter someone doing tai chi, which throws you off just a little bit because they are in such a state of concentration. I feel like tai chi-ers are not actually there...they have been placed in using green screens or something. Anyway, to the right we have...the official flower bed of the World Cup??

The park contained a museum about Lu Xun as well as his tomb. I really enjoyed the museum (I'm such a museum junkie...), especially since it had things like illustrations from stories I had read in class. Equally interesting for that reason was getting a (personal, Chinese language, at least partially understood) tour of his final residence, as shown left. This morning was really important to me, I think, as far as connecting the things that go on in the classroom to the rest of the world...I can remember clearly sitting with my dictionaries and struggling through those readings during rehearsal, late at night, in Tarble waiting for friends...and here's a museum that presents them as key elements of the literary front of a revolution, and here's the bed where the guy who wrote them slept for 10 years...oh, and here's his dead body...

Hung out in the park a while, then came home and chilled for a bit before taking a long bus ride to Longhua Cemetery of Martyrs and Longhua Si. Not actually much to see, which surprised Damin who had recommended we go, but I didn't really mind since I had already had a pretty rewarding day. Also, I at least got a picture with a pagoda. Now it's like I've really been to China.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home (I bought shampoo), and Damin made some dinner while I learned how to use an mp3 downloading site he recommended to find new stuff for my phone. :)

Back to School

Sunday definitely felt a lot different from Saturday, which felt a lot different from Friday, so it must be that somehow I am actually adjusting. Unfortunately, that doesn't include my jet lag, which actually seems to be getting worse...but it's nice when you get the worst part of your day over with before 6am.

I went into the center of the city all by myself today...except Damin walked me to the bus stop and put me on the right bus and told the ticket woman where I was going. At least I felt somewhat independent watching for my stop on my own...anyway, got to People's Park and called Amy, and we shortly found each-other. We went to lunch in the park at this nice middle eastern restaurant on the water, and it was really fun to talk to her and walk around a bit. (For those of you who don't know, Amy is the friend and former roommate at Wellesley of my friend Mary from home. Amy is also here for the summer for an internship. Difference being, her parents live here and she is Chinese. Interestingly, she is actually from Troy, Michigan, which is home to fewer people than her current apartment complex. We walked the Freedom Trail together when I visited Mary in October of freshman year.) Amy helped me buy a transportation card, which is accepted by the subway, buses, and even taxis.

Speaking of, I then took a taxi to Fudan University (which is near where I live) and sat around there reading for a while. Damin came to meet me and we walked around campus and talked about university in China and the U.S. It appeared to be graduation there today, just like at Swarthmore, and there were lots of people around.




Some people were all dressed up like this guy for the occasion...asking him to take a picture was not my idea, I promise.









And here, in honor of Farah, is the Chemistry building of Fudan University. A lot of things about being on a campus made me nostalgic (yes, nostalgic for like 15 days ago when I was on mine). Seeing dorms, and the cafeteria...and the libraries, except just looking in the window I could see they were nothing like our libraries. Every table was full and I bet no one was listening to their ipods.





After seeing Fudan, which is really beautiful, we went to Damin's cousin's apartment nearby to eat dinner. It was a really gorgeous apartment and delicious dinner, with good company as always. But as always, I started to fade seriously after dinner, so it's good to be back in my room again. I don't think I've mentioned it, but we are moving to a nicer apartment around the end of the month, which is near here. "Here" is about 30 minutes NE of the center of the city, and around 45 minutes from where I'll be working (and about 60 minutes from the airport). Buses serve the area well, but the Metro doesn't...yet. There are something like 4 Metro lines right now, and I heard there are going to be 17 by the 2010 Expo. So why can't we get a second Light Rail line at home??? (Wait, don't answer that.)

Shanghai is all about money. There are stores everywhere (including mini-malls in EVERY metro station), the reason most people are here is because of business, and I'm sure the nice climate for foreigners is largely based on the monetary contribution we general make. (And the fact that we speak English, which everyone learns...for the sake of business.) Amy says the people of Shanghai have always been generally mean, except with a huge soft spot for foreigners. Big, new buildings are being built and celebrated an an amazing rate. (Amy showed me the building that was tallest in 1986, and it was laughable. 1986!!) It's so interesting that all the cultural and political stuff is Beijing...Shanghai is really just industry. Not that that isn't huge. And in fact, I've seen it - everything about it is huge.

So much city

(This picture size made the blog look the best...I think you can click on them to see them bigger.)

Answers to questions first:

The subway...cost depends on where you go, but so far each time it's been 3 kuai (=3RMB=3yuan), so like 50 cents I think? Exchange rate is something over 6 RMB for 1 USD.

So, I live in a neighborhood which, as far as I know, lacks any real charm or value. But it IS near bus lines that go into most places in the center of the city. The center of the city, from what I can tell, consists of a bunch of really nice parks, several well-known shopping and historical streets, and the two sides of the Huangpu...one is the Bund, and the other is all the modern-looking skyscrapers. See above. Yes, foggy and gray again today.

Damin and I went to the Bund today, where there were good views of the modern downtown buildings, and I got to look closely at the Bund buildings. The one on the right reads "Hua Xia Yin Hang"...Hua Xia is another way to say "China" (as opposed to the traditional "Zhongguo"), which is something I knew from a story I read in Chinese class. I mentioned this to Damin, and then realized of course that he would know the story, since it is one of China's most famous.

Here's where we ate lunch. I, clearly, am the Rice Boss. We then walked past, like, four billions shops, which is endlessly interesting but also tiring. Stopped in Shanghai City of Books, which is a 7-story bookstore that was crowded like Disneyland.




To the right, we have just one section of the Yuyuan area, which is ridiculously touristy. Made me kind of realize what it would be like being here as a foreign tourist...makes me kind of envious, to tell the truth. Anyway, here is a Starbucks. Besides Starbucks, there are also a billion KFCs, and some but not nearly as many McDonald's.


Sorry, something about DND in big yellow letters is funny to me.








We were on a quest for a place to sit back and drink some tea when we ran into a public performance by this Italian, like, Renaissance flag core and band. They threw their flags in the air and jumped over each-other...it was pretty sweet.



The rest of the day was not too exciting, although I did briefly meet some of the people I'll be working with. More on that when I know more.

Ohhh forgot to mention - I'm borrowing a Chinese phone, and it's amazing...it's tiny, and is also an mp3/mp4 player and camera. I can just tell that once I get a handle on things, I will feel so cool listening to my mp3s on the bus and subway and enjoying what I do think is a really amazing city. Shanghai is wonderful, I just have to patient until it can be mine.

Request

One more thing - please make comments, including any questions that come to mind...I can't possibly include everything remotely interesting, and I know that I will end up leaving out big picture things as well. I also just would love to hear from you.

A city of strangers

Today, blogspot seems to be working for me! Yesterday, I was also unable to get to Xanga or Wikipedia, and was pretty sure they were censored...Joanna had the same idea. But somehow, today I have blogspot! And in Chinese, no less. I'm having fun trying to guess, mostly based on button color, which one is "post" and which one is "delete." Oh, wait, that one just went grey...I guess it was "save" and it just autosaved. I've spent about a fourth of my education of the past 6 years on this language...glad it's finally serving me.

First, promised pictures of my room:


It's my door! It slides out. Isn't it pretty?

My bear. I have to remember to ask what its name is...

I found a good place to hang my earrings!

My desk. Yes, those are Pikachu (sp?) curtains.

Closet area

My bed, and the animals who watch over me.

So, first day in Shanghai. It was everything it was supposed to be - completely overwhelming, exhausting, and amazing. Although it's hard to notice how amazing it is when you are so overwhelmed and no one else understands that its REALLY COOL that the holographic movie ads in the subway actually look 3D. That is one big difference I have noticed between this trip and my previous international "solo" trips to Spain and Chile - In those places, I had people around who knew the U.S. enough that my comments and comparisons would make sense. Here, no one is looking at things through the same context that I am. I did get to feeling pretty lonely at points throughout the day, but I imagine they will get less and less as time goes on.

Friday morning I spent reading stories from a magazine/book that Damin loaned me, which has short, entertaining stories in English above and Chinese below. We then walked to a gigantic market/store thing that was like 6 stories of different stores - but not like a mall, more like the different areas of an IKEA. There was a grocery store on the first floor, but we headed to the 4th floor, where all the electronics were. Stopped and had them look at my laptop and power cord, where the guy behind the counter helped us realize the problem was actually Damin's, like, multi-plug thing. The guy also let us know we couldn't buy a new card for my phone and have it work in China. Then he went to lunch with us - I guess he was a friend of Damin's. Anyway, lunch was pretty good although I didn't love all the flavors. but the frog legs were good. Damin offered that we could go for pizza, but I'm being stubborn about not shying away from zhongcan (Chinese food). The name for 7up here actually means, like, "7 like". It rhymes, it's cute.

Damin had more work to do at home, and since I am incapable of getting myself anywhere yet, I hung out at the apartment for another hour or so. That was frustrating, because my favorite part about traveling is being able to get places on my own, and I'm just not there yet. Then again, it was my first day.

Things looked up very quickly as we took a thrilling bus ride (thrilling. really.) into the center of the city. I was watching the tv in the bus (they have lcd screens playing news and/or ads on buses, subways, everywhere) and all the cute cartoony ads with bubble characters and trying to understand stuff, and realized that seeing that sort of thing at home would be really exciting for me. And now it is what I'm surrounded by.

We walked around the center of the city a lot, and while I was still pretty overwhelmed and couldn't tell where I was or most of what Damin was saying, I definitely caught some interesting tidbits and enjoyed everything I saw. We started off in People's Park, which is just gorgeous, and totally calm. 10 feet into any park, and the buzz of the city was gone - very New York. :) And the city was a lot like New York, in how busy it was...the subways, even busier. But things aren't as grid-like, so it has a very different feel to me. Also, (virtually) everyone's Chinese.

So, we walked through parks and past a lot of stores, including like an upscale version of the market place we had gone earlier that day - I don't know if it was one store with a billion departments (and a service person at each) or a lot of stores put together. We then took the subway to the Nanjing Rd. stop, and I can't remember what we did there (did I mention I was overwhelmed), but then we subway-ed again to Lujiazui, which is where the tall building with the round sections on it it. I think that building might be the Oriental Pearl TV Tower. We walked down to the Huangpu River and looked out at the Bund (all the colonial, European-looking buildings) from there. Unfortunately, it was super foggy (and rainy and wet) yesterday, so I didn't take pictures and figured I'd be back to see it all when I could actually...see it all.

We went from there to the Century Avenue stop (I think) and met his tutor (like...the guy who taught him how to be a lawyer, I guess) and his wife and daughter. They were all fabulous, friendly, fun people. They were happy I was from Minnesota, since they knew the Timberwolves. Also, their daughter was 18 months and adorable beyond belief. Dinner was amazing, and included these like bone things that contained liquid you drank through a straw before eating the meat on the outside...I tried not to think about it. The thing about being a guest is I always have to take everything first, and eat the last of everything. I try to take small portions, which I only sometimes get away with. Also, it's a lot of pressure to take things first and have to guess if they are chopstick or spoon foods, and if they should go on the plate or in the bowl. I shall learn.

By the end of dinner, at like 8, I was tired in a serious way from jetlag. Damin's tutor and family gave us a ride home, and along the way drove down to the Bund, which was just gorgeous and lit up. I wish I could have been more awake for more of the ride, but I was seriously exhausted. Came home and slept.